Design World

3D printing makes it easy to develop tooling for production by Design World

3D printing makes it easy to develop tooling for production by Design World

The aerospace industry was an early adopter of additive technology, followed by the automotive industry. Where do these industries stand in relation to additive technology today? In a recent interview, David Giebenhain, global product director at Protolabs, shares his thoughts.

Additive manufacturing has long been used in automotive, especially in racing. AM enables designers to make fast changes when faced with rapidly changing regulations and short design times. What are some of the lessons learned by those who work with motorsports and what can you gain from their experiences?

Martin Schulz, Global Principal Application Engineer with Littelfuse Europe, speaks with us about some of the engineering issues that arise in the quest to design battery and hydrogen-powered energy efficient vehicles.

In this Technology Tuesdays podcast, Jonathan Cottrell, lead program manager with PTI, chats with Design World’s Michelle Froese about design for manufacturing and the injection-molding process. Cottrell discusses the key factors to take into account when designing plastic parts, including the material, gate, wall, tool, and draft considerations. Listen in for: • Key considerations for the injection-molding process, including material selection • How to achieve uniform wall thickness and the significance of applying proper draft • The importance of gating, part geometry, and tool design • Variables to account for when ejecting a part from the mold • Tips for improving aesthetics without compromising a part’s reliability Jonathan Cottrell BSME, MBA, has been working in the field of plastic injection molding since graduating from high school. With nearly 25 years of experience, he’s developed products in several industries including automotive, aerospace, military, agriculture, medical devices, and other

As additive manufacturing gains acceptance as a production tool, the size of a typical 3D print slice data file is predicted to grow cubically. Handling all of these data could become an issue for the additive industry. Harshil Goel, CEO and Founder of Dyndrite discusses potential solutions to this problem.

Materials have been and will continue to be key elements of any additive manufacturing or 3D printing operation. New materials are emerging all the time. As vendors explore and develop materials, new information emerges about the best ways to use additive equipment.

More 3D printing vendors are introducing metal materials for their systems. One popular metal in particular is stainless steel. This material offers a number of benefits to designers. We interviewed Felipe Castaneda, Creative Director at MakerBot, on ways to make the most of it in your designs for 3D printing.

Lattice structures have not been used as often as they could be because manufacturing methods that could produce them easily did not exist until the development of 3D printing / Additive Manufacturing. Today, though, 3D printing easily creates lattice structures in helmets, saddles, shoes, nasal swabs, and in other designs.

3D printing/additive manufacturing and injection molding do not have to be competitors. In fact, 3D printing can aid injection molding. Formlabs recently commented that 3D printing is more of an accelerator for injection molding. 3D printers can introduce a hybrid approach where molds can be created fast and at low cost. Here are key points from an interview with Kathy Bui, engineering vertical lead at Formlabs

Like so many other markets and industries, the COVID pandemic has affected the supply of components used to make semiconductor processing equipment. Semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers are turning to additive manufacturing to help repair the supply chain and enable designers to design for function first. I spoke with Scott Green, Principal Solutions Leader for semiconductors at 3D Systems on this subject. Here are some of the highlights of the interview.

The DARPA Transformative Design TRADES program was created to develop foundational design tools that will help designers take more advantage of the capabilities of additive technology. Recently, Siemens Technology completed its work on a software project for this program. I spoke with Mark Burhop, principal investigator with the research arm of Siemens, to discuss the developments. Here are the highlights of the interview.

Designers in the sports world have been one of the quickest groups to adopt additive manufacturing technology. They’ve developed a few insights and perspectives that might be useful for engineers in other fields. David Woodlock, Application Development and Design Manager at HP, discusses a few of these insights.

3D Systems, a company with decades of experience in the field of 3D printing recently announced plans to significantly expand its development efforts on regenerative medicine and bioprinting. We explore this development with Mr. Chuck Hull, inventor of the Figure 4 3D printing system used in this application.

In this Motion Mondays podcast, Jeff Johnson of Beckhoff Automation chats with Design World’s executive editor Lisa Eitel about linear-motor conveyors (also called intelligent transport systems) as well as planar-motor systems from Beckhoff called the XPlanar. Jeff Johnson is U.S. mechatronics products manager at Beckhoff Automation. Based in Fond du Lac, Wis., Johnson was (prior to joining Beckhoff in 2008) an applications team leader for Danaher Motion and G&L Motion Control. Visit motioncontroltips.com and search on XPlanar to see this podcast’s show notes.

According to Pierrick Balaire, global business line leader at Intertek: “The Intertek Functional Safety mark provides Nexen a way to reduce hazards and risks to operating personnel, machinery, and surrounding environments at a time when they are facing increased demands around functional safety. We’re pleased to grant Nexen with this certification — the first of its kind in North America — and look forward to continuing to work with them and others providing the industry with high-quality products as well as peace of mind.” In this Technology Tuesdays podcast, Dave Hein — senior vice president and engineering and chief technology officer at Nexen Group — chats with Lisa Eitel of Design World about three brake options that now have Functional Safety certification. Visit motioncontroltips.com and search on Hein to see this podcast’s show notes.

A more indepth look at 2021 predictions from Shapeway, based on insights from industry insiders, strategic partners, and high-profile business and consumer customers.

Exploring 3D printing for space by Design World

When it comes to making a designed part, you have several choices: traditional machining, which covers a range of options; injection molding; and now additive manufacturing. Even more recently though, is the trend of combining metal fabrication and additive manufacturing to make parts.